480 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



sight with evident delight, and told how such and such a bull or cow 

 had exhibited feats of wonderful strength in the death-struggle. The 

 flesh of many of the cows had been taken from them, and was drying in 

 the sun on stages near the tents. It is needless to say that the odor 

 was overpowering, and millions of large blue flesh-flies, humming and 

 buzzing over the putrefying bodies, was not the least disgusting part 

 of the spectacle." 



It is some satisfaction to know that when the first " run " was made, 

 teu days previous, the herd of two hundred buffaloes was no sooner 

 driven into the pound than a wary old bull espied a weak spot in the 

 fence, charged it at full speed, and burst through to freedom and the 

 prairie, followed by the entire herd. 



Strange as it may seem to-day, this wholesale method of destroying 

 buffalo was once practiced in Montana. In his memoir on "The Ameri- 

 can Bison," Mr. J. A. Allen states that as late as 1873, while journeying 

 through that Territory in charge of the Yellowstone Expedition, he 

 " several times met with the remains of these pounds and their converg- 

 ing fences in the region above the mouth of the Big Horn River." Mr. 

 Thomas Simpson states that in 1840 there were three camps of Assin- 

 niboine Indians in the vicinity of Carlton House, each of which had its 

 buffalo pound into which they drove forty or fifty animals daily. 



4. The "Surround." — During the last forty years the final extermina- 

 tion of the buffalo has been confidently predicted by not only the observ- 

 ing white man of the West, but also nearly all the Indians and half- 

 breeds who formerly depended upon this animal for the most of the ne- 

 cessities, as well as luxuries, of life. They have seen the great herds 

 driven westward farther and farther, until the plains were left tenant- 

 less, and hunger took the place of feasting on the choice tidbits of the 

 chase. And is it not singular that during this period the Indian tribes 

 were not moved by a common impulse to kill sparingly, and by the ex- 

 ercise of a reasonable economy in the chase to make the buffalo last as 

 long as possible. 



But apparently no such thoughts ever entered their minds, so far as 

 they themselves were concerned. They looked with jealous eyes upon 

 the white hunter, and considered him as much of a robber as if they 

 had a brand on every buffalo. It has been claimed by some authors 

 that the Indians killed with more judgment and more care for the future 

 than did the white man, but I fail to find any evidence that such was 

 ever the fact. They all killed wastefully, wantonly, and always about 

 five times as many head as were really necessary for food. It was 

 always the same old story, whenever a gang of Indians needed meat a 

 whole herd was slaughtered, the choicest portions of the finest animals 

 were taken, and about 75 per cent, of the whole left to putrefy and fatten 

 the wolves. And now, as we read of the appalling slaughter, one can 

 scarcely repress the feeling of grim satisfaction that arises when we 

 also read that many of the ex-slaughterers are almost starving for the 



